Over a quiet mug of coffee, see if you can answer the key question at the end of each section.
No. 1 Positioning
What are you selling? Who are you selling it to? More importantly why do they buy it from YOU? Can you describe this in clear and simple terms in such a way that it is obvious to your prospects?
If you can’t do this, either verbally or in written form, you’re facing an uphill struggle promoting your offering to a target audience. What is your Unique Selling Point? What is your Elevator pitch? Check out your competition, and see what they are saying about themselves. Does what you say really sound that different? I know from when I worked in the IT sector, almost ALL of our competitors’ marketing messages were exactly the same, just with slightly different colour schemes on their brochures. Why should prospects come to you for help rather than your competition?
Q. What do you do? (without mentioning service, reliability, quality or price)
No. 2 Packaging
Ok, so you’ve sorted out your USP or Key Marketing Message. You may even have a good grasp what what the problems, worries and frustrations of your clients are, and how to match these to your solutions. But how do you package this? How are you packaging your solutions to communicate the value that you offer, in a way that gives prospects confidence that you can solve their problems? How do you package yourself, your identity and your message?
Q. How do you attract attention, interest, desire and action from prospects?
No. 3 Promotion
How do prospects learn about you? Are you just sitting there looking wistfully at the phone, or taking steps to make it ring with people who want what you have to offer? Once you’re clear on what you offer, who buys it and why, the next step is to make sure people know about you. What methods are you using to prove to people your knowledge, skills and experience, so that you’re first on their list of people to ask for help? You need to become a familiar, trusted face with your target market. The more they see you, and the more they see you deliver, the more they will trust you.
Q. What are you doing to make qualified prospects call you?
No. 4 Persuasion
Converting qualified prospects into sales, convincing people that you are the right person to solve their problem. Most of this should be done by steps 2 and 3 above. At this stage you should be re-affirming what their problems are, that they have the authority, motivation and a realistic budget to address them, and they want to make a decision now. If your marketing system is working properly, your prospect has already decided you are the right person to help them by the time they call, and this stage is just about agreeing terms.
Q. How do you qualify your prospects and persuade them you are the right solution for them?
No. 5 Performance
Are you meeting your clients expectations? How do you know? What do you do if the client doesn’t keep up their side of the bargain? How do you hold them accountable? Do they understand exactly what is required of them in order for your relationship to be successful? Do you have a written agreement, with key performance indicators, milestones and deliverables agreed with your client from the start? Again, when I worked in IT, clients would very often change the specifications in the middle of the project, and then be surprised when things went awry. In my opinion, the supplier is very often at fault in that situation for not providing leadership to the client and getting things sorted out up front.
Q. How do you confirm your client’s perceptions and expectations, and ensure both you and the client are performing as expected?
